The Frozen Planet
by Purple Butter
Summary: Shepard, Garrus and Tali land on an uncharted planet. They discover the remains of an ancient civilization and an underground vault containing an army of metal men, frozen in time. Only the Doctor can save them, but he's lost in time.
1. Chapter 1

"Intruder on level three."

"Squads twelve and fourteen have been destroyed."

"A new intruder has been detected. This male registers as enemy."

"All units retreat to the vault. We must survive."

**12,000 years later**

Shepard almost fell out of her seat as the shuttle shook violently in the planet's dust storm. The quarian in the seat next to her almost did the same, and the turian sitting opposite them stifled a laugh.

"Laugh it up Vakarian," Shepard said with a smile, "You won't be laughing when I save your sorry ass for the twenty-fourth time."

"Twenty-third," Garrus corrected her, "That incident on Pragia doesn't count."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Garrus." Shepard said as she shrugged her shoulders.

The voice of Matthews, the shuttle's pilot, came through the intercom, "ETA four standard minutes, Commander."

"What's the plan Shepard?" asked the quarian Tali, speaking for the first time since the shuttle had left the Normandy SR-2's hangar.

Shepard opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Garrus.

"You've been awfully quiet today Tali," he said with the turian equivalent of a smirk, "I guess my stylish good looks left you speechless."

"I've never been attracted to men with scars Garrus." Tali replied.

"So you're saying you were attracted to me before I got my scars?"

"In your wildest dreams Garrus."

"The human would like to talk!" Shepard shouted across both of them.

"Sorry, Commander." The two of them mumbled.

"Anyway," Shepard began, "The plan is to find whoever sent out that distress signal EDI detected, and to search for survivors."

"I don't like this," Garrus said he stared up at the ceiling, "This far out, on the very edge of the galaxy, it could only be pirates. This could be a trap."

"It could not." Shepard said with one of her eyebrows raised.

Garrus chuckled at the odd human body language, "Fine, Commander. But, as Wrex once said, if I die I'll kill you."

"So let me get this straight," said Tali as she loaded a thermal clip into her shotgun, "We're diving headfirst onto a planet that any sane sentient being would never dream of setting foot on and that is probably housing a small army of bloodthirsty, merciless pirates?"

"Just like old times." Garrus and Shepard said together with insane smiles.

The shuttle buckled wildly as it touched down on the planet's surface.

"We have now arrived in the ass end of nowhere," said Matthews over the intercom, "Please enjoy your stay!"

Shepard and Garrus put on and sealed their helmets before stepping out into the never ending dust storm, Tali followed them.

"I'll be waiting here Commander," Matthews said over Shepard's helmet communicator, "I might try and do some repairs while you're away. The navigational controls need some fine tuning."

"Aye aye Matthews. But I want hourly updates to know that you're okay, you got that?"

"You're such a big softie Commander! Matthews out."

Shepard monitored at her companions to move out. The trio drew their weapons and slowly made their way across the rocky landscape. The rocks, as well as the ground beneath their feet, had a bizarre, purple tinge.

"Mordin would love it here," said Tali over the helmet communicators, "Hundreds of interesting samples."

"Keep chatter to a minimum," Shepard said with a whisper (although she had no idea why she whispered), "We don't know who could be listening in." She hated to admit it, but Garrus was right. There was something not quite right with this planet.

Later, just after Matthews had given them his hourly report, Shepard and Garrus almost had a simultaneous heart attack after Tali suddenly swore incredibly loudly.

"Jesus Christ, Tali what is it?" Shepard asked as Tali jumped up and down on the spot.

"You're quite the screamer." Garrus said with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up Garrus. Sorry, I stubbed my toe on that." Tali pointed down at a heap of extremely rusty metal partially buried in the sand.

Shepard picked up a member of the metal heap. It was shaped like a chest with an assortment of wires hanging uselessly out of the empty arm sockets. She looked to her right and saw Garrus handling what looked like a head with handle bars coming out of the top.

"Any idea what this is?" Garrus asked as he stared at the rusty head.

"No idea," said Tali as she continued to jump up and down on the spot, "But it clearly doesn't mix well with quarian toes."

Shepard picked up an arm from the pile and noticed what looked like a weapon mounted to its wrist, "Perhaps it's some sort of high tech battle armour. I'm no scientist but, judging by how rusty it is, I'd say it's been here a while. You were right Tali."

Tali stopped jumping and looked at the Commander in confusion, "Right about what?"

"Mordin would absolutely love it here."

The three of them continued over the nearest ridge and saw something incredible.

"By the Spirits," Garrus said, "It can't be."

"Oh, it is." Shepard said as she stared out at their discovery.

Spread out before them was an enormous city, at least several miles in diameter. Its architecture was rigid, formal and uniform. Its streets were deserted and the never ending dust storms beat against the rusty buildings. Three large industrial funnels towered over the rest of the city; however, it looked like they hadn't been used for centuries.

"I think we've discovered a lost civilisation." Tali said in amazement.

"I'd better get my name in the history books this time." Garrus said.

"Still bitter over not getting a mention in _Battle of the Citadel_?"

"Even Chakwas got a mention! I have every right to be bitter!"

Shepard activated her helmet communicator, "Hey Matthews! You'll never guess what –"

"It's okay. I'm fine, I'm fine." Said Matthews' voice over the communicator.

"Jesus, Matthews at least let me finish. We've found a –"

"It's okay. I'm fine, I'm fine." Matthews repeated in the exact same tone.

"What the hell's going on?" Shepard slapped the side of the helmet in a vain attempt to fix whatever was wrong.

"It could be the dust storm Commander," Tali said, "It could be interfering with your communicator, giving you the same audio again and again."

"So we're completely on our on?" Garrus said to no one in particular, "Fantastic."

"Come on Garrus," Shepard said as she smiled under her helmet, "Just like old times. Now let's get some data on that city. I'm sure Mordin would practically faint with joy at our findings."

The trio slowly and carefully made their way down the slope towards the city (Tali almost broke her ankle, prompting her to swear loudly again, which in turn prompted another snarky comment from Garrus). Once in the deserted streets of the city, their noticed that every single door had a formal-looking sign over it.

"You recognise the language Commander?" asked Garrus as he snapped photos with his omni-tool.

"Never seen it before," Shepard replied, "This has to be an undiscovered species."

"Undiscovered and extinct," Tali said as she scanned the area, "What do you think Shepard? Reapers?"

"Possibly. But these buildings don't seem as old as Prothean ruins. They seem fairly young by comparison."

They continued through the city, collecting as much data as possible on the way. They eventually came across a large vault door in the side of a rather small building.

"Tali, can you get us through this?" Shepard said as she pointed at the door.

"Of course I can Shepard. What do you take me for?" Tali knelt down, opened a control panel to the left of the vault door, wired in her omni-tool and began typing away furiously.

"Have you tried contacting Matthews again Shepard?" Garrus asked.

"I keep getting the exact same answer in the exact same tone. It's kind of creepy."

"Must be a glitch."

"Yeah. Must be." Shepard said, although she wasn't entirely convinced.

"You're in my light Garrus." Tali said without looking away from her omni-tool.

"Sorry Tali, you know how much I enjoy the sight of you bending over."

"Bosh'tet!" Tali yelled as she smacked her omni-tool in frustration.

"Are you talking to the omni-tool or Garrus?" Shepard said with a laugh.

"Both," said Tali as she torn a wire out of the control panel. The vault door slid open with an almighty groan.

"Good work Tali." Shepard said as she patted Tali on the shoulder.

"Well you know, sometimes the brute force method works best." Tali said as she discarded the torn out wire by throwing it at Garrus.

The trio slowly make their way down the narrow, sloping path in the vault. They must have walked for around half a mile before reaching the bottom of the slope.

"I can't see a thing." Garrus' voice said through the pitch darkness.

"Wait, I've got something for this," Tali said over the sound of her rummaging through her suit pockets, "Come on, where are you you little bosh'tet – ah!"

Shepard and Garrus heard a kicking sound and suddenly the room was filled with light.

"Gravity Globe," Tali explained as she pointed at a small luminous ball floating near the centre of the ceiling, "Little invention of mine."

"Impressive." Garrus said with genuine admiration.

The three of them took a proper look at the underground room for the first time. It was a mile long and the ceiling was at least fifty metres above their heads. There were hundreds upon hundreds of eight foot tall glass cases, each one of them housing a fully intact (very shiny) version of whatever it was that Tali almost broke her toe on. The metal men each stood perfectly still; their unblinking eyes staring into nothingness. At the very back of the cavern, stood a huge vid screen. The light from the Gravity Globe cast an eerie light over it all.

"By the Spirits, there's a whole army of them!" Garrus said in amazement, "That one we found outside the city must have been some sort of scout or sentry."

"Not so extinct." Tali whispered.

Shepard tapped on the glass of the nearest case. No reaction from its occupant.

"I think it's some sort of suspended animation." She said.

"Impressive," said Garrus, "Not even the Cerberus has that kind of tech."

"They're all in that battle armour," said Tali as she pointed at their shiny chests, "Why? If they had a choice, why would anyone choose to wear a suit all there life?"

The three of them almost died from shock when an excited, young, male voice suddenly boomed across the cavern.

"Ah, yes! I got it working! Hello people of the future!"


	2. Chapter 2

The three of them almost died from shock when an excited, young, male voice suddenly boomed across the cavern.

"Ah, yes! I got it working! Hello people of the future!"

The enormous vid screen at the back of the hall had jumped into life. A young human wearing a tweed jacket and a blue bowtie was smiling at them.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor and I'm talking to you through a giant television! Well, I say television; it's actually a sort of public announcement system that the Cyber-Leader uses to bark orders at his underlings. Well, I say bark; it's really more of a monotone."

"Who the hell is this?" Garrus whispered to Shepard.

"I told you! I'm the Doctor!" the man boomed across the hall.

"Doctor who?" Shepard shouted.

"Just the Doctor."

"What sort of person wears a bowtie?" Tali whispered to Garrus and Shepard as they all sniggered at the man's unusual fashion sense.

"Bowties are cool," the Doctor said as he adjusted his strange neck wear, "Now shut up and listen while my very clever plan unfolds. I'm a time traveller. But I got separated from my frankly, fantastic time machine," the Doctor looked a bit embarrassed for a split second, "By twelve millennia."

"Wait, wait," said Shepard, "If you're separated from us by twelve thousand years, then how the hell are you talking to us?"

"Because this is a recording," the Doctor said as if it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, "I recorded this message on the PA system a few minutes ago and set it to play in twelve thousand years."

"Then how are you responding to us as if you know what we're going to say?" Shepard said with a hint of frustration.

A maniacal grin spread across the Doctor's face, "Spoilers. Now shut up and listen again. I need the three of you to go Cold Storage Nine. But you need to hurry. The Cybermen, those metal things, they're Cybermen; are waking up."

Shepard, Garrus and Tali quickly levelled their guns at the glass cases in panic. Indeed, the creatures inside we're beginning to flex their metallic fingers. The three of them began to run towards the vault entrance.

"Wait!" the Doctor shouted.

Shepard stopped running, Garrus and Tali followed suit.

"Commander, we need to go," said Garrus as he nervously eyed the awakening creatures, "Now."

"This Doctor seems to have the answers. I think it would be in our best interests to listen to him."

"I think our best interests involve getting off this planet."

"I don't know why, but I trust this man. Never seen him before in my life; but I trust him."

"Good girl." The Doctor said, "Their sensors detected non-Cyberman life in the vault so they're waking up. Don't worry through; you've still got," he checked his wristwatch, "roughly an hour before they completely thaw."

"Wait, we don't know anything about these Cybermen," said Tali, "They could be friendly."

"No Tali not friendly at all," the Doctor said.

"How do you know my name?" Tali demanded.

"Shut up and let me finish," the Doctor suddenly had an air of seriousness around him, "The Cybermen are a conglomeration; I like that word, that's a good word; of organic life forms and cybernetics. They used to be people once. Every single one of them. But they had their thoughts, their emotions; their very soul ripped away from them."

"They're hardly cuddly little Ewoks then." Shepard deadpanned.

"Cold Storage Nine. Go."

The trio turned to leave the vault again.

"One more thing!" the Doctor shouted.

Shepard rolled her eyes and turned to face the vid screen, "What now?"

"There's something else out there. Something worse than an entire army of Cybermen. Much worse. It looks like a –"

The doctor's young face faded away as grey static filled the screen. After a second or two he reappeared, shining some sort of green light into the camera.

He let out a noise of frustration, "The recording equipment's playing up! Listen, it looks like an ang –"

He was engulfed by static before he showed up again.

"Two words of advice," he said, "The most important advice you'll ever receive. Don't bli –"

The static invaded the screen again. The trio waited for a few seconds before deciding to move out. They weaved their way through the glass cases (keeping a sharp eye on the not-quite-alive-yet Cybermen), trekked up the steep slope and emerged into the blinding sunlight of the city.

"Tali," said Shepard, "Can you reseal the vault? Trap them?"

"Sorry Shepard but no," Tali replied, "I used the brute force method remember?"

"Fantastic. Great idea Tali." Garrus said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Forget that then," Shepard said, "You heard the man; Cold Storage Nine."

"You're not honestly taking orders from someone who thinks bowties are the height of fashion are you?" said Garrus.

"Yes. As a matter of fact; we are. Move out."

The three of them combed their way through the city. Noticing the odd dead, rusty Cyberman here and there. They eventually came across a row of ten single-storey buildings with the trademark signs above their doors that all the buildings in the city seemed to have.

"Wait!" Garrus shouted to his companions as they continued walking down the street.

"Oh, don't start doing that as well." Shepard said as she rolled her eyes.

"My highly attuned sniper eyes have detected something," Garrus said with a grin, "All the buildings on the left side of this street; they all have a snowflake symbol above the doors."

"As fascinating as that is Garrus, I'm failing to see what your point is."

"Bowtie Boy, he said we should go to Cold Storage Nine, right?"

Shepard eyes widened as she finally made the connection, "You're smarter than you look, Vakarian. Tali, hack through number nine's door."

Tali jogged over to the door, "No need Commander. It's already open. That makes a nice change."

The three of them walked through the narrow doorway and closed it behind them. Before was a short, dark corridor and another identical door. This one was also unlocked.

"I'm starting to feel useless." Tali jokily said.

Beyond the second door was a large room. It was freezing cold, with ice covering the floor and walls and icicles hanging from the ceiling. Piles and piles of packaged food (or what was presumably supposed to be food) were placed neatly all over the room.

"Food?" said Garrus, "Those cyber things don't look like they need food."

"The Doctor said they turn people into their own," said Tali as she inspected one of the packages, "They need food for the future recruits."

Shepard shivered. She wasn't sure if it was the cold or the horrifying image of becoming one of those things. "The Doctor wanted us here for a reason. What?"

"I still don't fully trust him," said Garrus, "This could be a trap."

"Shepard! Garrus!" Tali shouted from the back of the room.

The two of them rushed towards her voice (Garrus almost slipped over on the way) and found her staring at something on the back wall. There was some sort of writing, obscured behind a layer of ice.

"I think it's written in a human language, Dutch I think," said Tali, "Can you make it out Commander?"

"It's English not Dutch, and no. There's too much ice in the way."

"Simple solution for that." Garrus said and as he smashed the ice with the butt of his sniper rifle.

"Now who's using the brute force method?" Tali said in a teasing manner.

The writing had been carved into the wall somehow:

**Tower 11. Top floor. Use the swirly lever! Love from, the Doctor.**

**P.S. Mind your step Garrus**

**P.P.S. Beware the ang**

Shepard read the message out loud and Tali took a photo of it using her omni-tool.

"Mind your step? What's that supposed to mean?" Garrus said mere seconds before slipped on an icy patch and smacking his head on the floor.

Tali laughed, "I like this Doctor. He's smart." She looked down at Garrus, "And funny."

"Handsome too." Shepard said as she removed a tiny metal box from the grove of the letter "D" in "Doctor", "What's this?"

"Let me see it." Tali said as took the small box from Shepard, "I have no idea – ow!"

Tali dropped the box and began massaging her hands, "It started burning me!" she explained to the other two.

The little box lay open on the floor in a small puddle of water. Inside the box was a key. It wasn't special looking or extraordinary. It was just a normal key.

Shepard picked up the key and quickly pocketed it before it could burn through her hands, "Did it burn though your gloves Tali?"

"A little bit yes. Nothing some antibiotics won't cure." Tali said as she rummaged through her pockets for her medicine.

"I told you I didn't trust him." Garrus said.

"I'm sure he had a good reason for that," said Shepard, "Or at least I hope he did."

The sound of a thousand marching metal feet suddenly rang out across the whole city. Dozens of robotic voices could be heard giving out orders in a cold monotone.

The trio looked at each other in panic.

The Cybermen had awoken.


	3. Chapter 3

As the metal men stomped across their city, the whole planet seemed to shake. Shepard, Garrus and Tali stood in the icy room, listening in silence to the sounds of the newly awoken army.

"What do we do Shepard?" Garrus said over the deafening footsteps and robotic voices, "What the hell do we do?"

Shepard hesitated for a moment, "Tali, do a scan for life forms in the immediate area."

"Yes Commander," said Tali as she hastily fiddled with her omni-tool, "Scanning for life forms…..increasing scan radius…that can't be right."

"What?"

"According to the scanner there are trillions of life forms in this city."

"What?" said Garrus and Shepard together.

"Oh wait…..sorry; the scanner was taking microorganisms into account."

"Spirits, Tali you almost gave me a heart attack!" Garrus said as he clutched his chest with relief.

"Sorry about that," she said as she toyed with her omni-tool some more, "Yet me just set the scanner to only show humanoid life signs," she laughed, "Humanoid. You can tell this app was made by humans."

"Tali, I don't mean to rush you -"

"Sorry Shepard. This app is a bit temperamental; that's the last time I buy something from Harrot. Ah, got it," she stared at the results, "In this city; there are at least one thousand life forms."

"That isn't so bad," said Garrus, "We kill that many mercs on a daily basis."

"Two thousand and counting." Tali said as she continued to stare at her omni-tool.

"Oh. That could be –"

"Three thousand."

"Problematic." Shepard finished Garrus' sentence.

"The scanner is taking us into account," said Tali, "So really there are only two thousand nine hundred and ninety seven Cybermen."

"I feel better already." Garrus deadpanned.

"I'm calling in the Normandy," said Shepard as she turned on her suit communicator, "Ground team to Normandy. Ground team to Normandy. Come in Normandy. Come on Joker, pick up."

All she got for a reply was static. Static; the very worst thing to hear in this situation.

"I'm not getting a reply. It must be that dust storm, scrambling our communications."

"So now what?" asked Garrus, "I still think our best interests involve the shuttle taking off. Preferably with us inside it."

"Tower Eleven," said Shepard as she glanced over her shoulder at the Doctor's message, "We go to Tower Eleven."

"Are you insane? If you ask me, this Doctor knows far too much about these cyber things. He could be working for them. Tower Eleven could be an ambush!"

"An ambusher?" Shepard glanced at the message again, "Who sends his love? We're going to the tower Garrus and we're going to find out what this does," she patted the pocket where she had placed the mysterious key, "And that's an order."

"Yes Commander." said Garrus, a hint of bitterness in his voice.

Shepard's communicator started crackling. She leapt on it faster than a hamster on coffee, "Joker? Joker, is that you?"

A faint voice was audible though the static, "Come here. I need you."

"Matthews? Matthews are you okay?" there was a long pause, "Matthews?"

"Come here. I need you." Matthews said again in the exact same tone.

"Not this again," Shepard pinched the end of her nose, "Okay, here's the plan. Garrus, Tali you go to Tower Eleven and find out what the Doctor wants you to do. I'll go and help Matthews."

"With all due respect Commander," said Garrus, "If we have any chance at all of fighting though the Cybermen then we need as many of us as possible."

Shepard turned away from them and sighed, "I lost too many people in the Collector Base. I can't lose another. I just can't."

Tali stepped forward, "I'll go Commander. I'm the smallest; I could probably sneak past most of them."

Shepard turned to face them, "Fine. But don't you dare get yourself killed."

"I'll consider that an order, Commander." Tali patted her best friend on the shoulder and made her way towards the exit.

"Wait," Garrus said, "Just….just be careful Tali…..I mean I…..I…..just take care of yourself."

"Will do." Tali nodded a farewell to her friends and slowly made her way out of Cold Storage Nine.

* * *

><p>Tali sprinted from cover to cover always narrowly avoiding a paroling squad of Cybermen. It had been roughly an hour since she had volunteered. Whilst hiding she kept looking up at the huge skyscrapers that dominated the cyber city's skyline. She had no idea which one was Tower Eleven but that didn't stop her from squinting at the windows of each tower she came across to see if she could make out the faint outlines of a turian and a human. No luck so far.<p>

She sprinted as fast as she could towards the nearest doorway. However, the door opened and a pair of Cybermen marched out. Tali quickly changed direction and ran into the alley next to the building, where she promptly jumped into a skip.

"Not the most dignified of stealth tactics," she said, "I'm really glad Garrus isn't here to see this." The skip seemed to be full of disassembled, rusty Cybermen parts. Tali crawled over the various heads, arms and legs to get a better look at the Cybermen standing right outside the alley. They seemed to be having a conversation.

"Is there confirmation of Subject Two?" said the first Cyberman in a cold, robotic monotone.

"Negative." Said the second Cyberman in an identical voice, "Cyber-Leader reports that there are no traces."

"What of the Doctor?"

"No traces of Time Lord activity."

Tali whispered under her breath, "Time Lord?"

"Excellent." Said the first Cyberman and as it and its comrade marched away from Tali's hiding place.

Tali tried to climb out of the skip as quietly as she could but she failed as an assortment of cyber parts fell out the skip with her.

"Damn it!" said Tali as kicked away an arm that had become tangled in her feet.

"Noise trace detected." Said the familiar monotone of a Cyberman.

Tali ran out from the alley and started running down the street as fast as she could. Energy bolts were speeding past her, narrowly missing her. She didn't dare look back and see how many of them were shooting at her. Tali returned fire with her shotgun. She had no idea if the shot had hit anything and even if it did the shotgun was probably too far away to be effective.

A few bolts hit her in the back but her shields absorbed the damage. One more shot like that however….

A door to her left opened and a Cyberman stepped out. Tali reduced it to scrap metal with two shotgun blasts without even stopping. Another energy bolt just missed her and hit the wall to her left.

She kept running. She was at the edge of the city; just a bit further. A few bolts hit the ground around her feet. Tali turned around to face her enemy and returned fire. The shotgun spread hit a few of the Cybermen in the marching formation, but they were too far away for it to do any real damage.

An energy bolt hit her in the chest. Luckily, her shields had recharged and they took the brunt of the damage. Another bolt hit her shotgun and snapped it in two. Tali threw the now useless gun on the floor in frustration. She withdrew her pistol, killed a Cyberman by shooting it in the head six times and ran out of the city.

Tali kept running as fast as she could until she got to the dead Cyberman she had stubbed her toe on a few hours earlier. It was difficult to tell through the dust storm, but it looked like the Cybermen hadn't followed her out of the city.

"Keelah," she said as she bent over and breathed heavily, "Keelah."

After she had caught her breath she began making her way through the dust storm and across the purple tinged rocks towards Matthews and the shuttle. Tali hoped that Matthews was okay; Shepard was still kicking herself for losing so many people in the Collector Base.

Eventually, the faint outline of the shuttle was visible though the dust. Tali rushed towards it. The shuttle seemed okay but Matthews was nowhere to be seen.

"Hello?" Tali shouted, "Matthews, it's me Tali. The quarian. Hello?"

No answer.

Tali loaded a fresh thermal clip into her pistol and slowly made her way around the shuttle. On the other side was a slumped human corpse, propped up against the side of the shuttle in a sitting position. Tali rushed towards it and noticed that it was Matthews. His eyes were still open in shock.

"Keelah, I'm sorry. I should have got here sooner."

Tali inspected the lifeless body and saw that the back of his head had been smashed in. Gruesomely, some of his brain tissue had been removed. Someone, or something, had approached him from behind and smashed his skull open.

Tali felt like vomiting in her helmet, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I wasn't fast enough."

She turned on the recording app on her omni-tool, "I'm sorry Shepard but Matthews is dead. I did the best I could but I just wasn't fast enough. It's not your fault. Please, don't blame yourself. Not again -"

The sound of fluttering wings behind her stopped Tali in mid-sentence. She quickly stopped recording, sent the message to Shepard's omni-tool and turned around in less than a second.

A few metres away from her stood a serene, beautiful statue. Tali thought it resembled the angels from human Christian mythology that Ashley had once told her about back on the original Normandy. Tali had found it amusing how humans believed in such peculiar legends.

The statue stood with its arms at its side. Its blank, stone eyes stared straight at Tali.

"Okay," said Tali, "Just when I thought this day couldn't get any weirder. I heard wings. You have wings. But it couldn't have been you. You're just a statue. Right?" She levelled her pistol at the statue before chuckling and lowering her weapon, "And now you're talking to an inanimate object. You're getting paranoid girl."

Tali turned her back on the statue. She was immediately engulfed by a flash of bright blue light.


	4. Chapter 4

Tali's head was swimming. It felt like she'd just downed an entire tankard of krogan ale. Her eyes were closed and she was lying on something soft.

_Was it all a dream?_ She thought to herself. _The Cybermen? The angel statue? The Doctor? All of it? Okay, I'll open my eyes and I'll be in my sleeping pod back on the Normandy. Nice, warm, safe sleeping pod._

She opened her eyes. She was lying in the sand, staring up at the planet's violently orange sky.

"I'm still in life threatening danger?" she muttered to herself, "Fine. It's not as if that's new to me anyway."

She suddenly noticed that the dust storm had calmed down and she was nowhere near the shuttle. The quarian groggily got to her feet whilst her splitting headache dug into her skull. She suddenly remembered the statue, snatched her loaded pistol out of the sand and hastily skimmed the area. No sign of it.

Tali turned on her helmet communicator, "Joker? Joker? Pick up you bosh'tet!" Despite the lack of the storm, she still didn't receive an answer.

Tali began recalibrating her communicator using her omni-tool. Perhaps something was wrong with it? She suddenly froze. Something was wrapping a long, thin tentacle around her leg. It felt like the leg of a face spider. Tali had been petrified of face spiders ever since one had found its way into her bubble when she was eight years old. In her opinion, face spiders were infinitely more terrifying than an army of Collectors.

The spider's leg was making its way up her leg. Tali screamed like a little girl and kicked it away. Lying a few feet away in the sand was a decapitated Cyberman head with some long wires flowing out of it; it looked like some sort of strange octopus.

"Not quite as bad as a face spider then." Tali said to the Cyberhead as its wire-tentacles thrashed about.

"You will be converted." Said the Cyberhead in a slightly fragmented version of the usual robotic monotone.

"Somehow I don't think so," Tali said as she stared down at the pitiful creature. She checked the thermal clip was still in place as she prepared to shoot it, "Convert this. Oh, oh that was awful. I really should leave the one-liners to Shepard."

Without warning, the Cyberhead lashed out with one of its wires and knocked the pistol out of Tali's hands. Tali began to run towards her weapon but the Cyberhead wrapped all of its wires around her legs and pulled her to the ground with surprising strength. Tali tried to kick it off but to no avail.

The Cyberhead spoke again in its disjointed voice, "Warning: Failure to comply with conversion procedures may result in serious injury. Such as death."

Tali tried desperately to reach her pistol. It was still several feet away. Time to improvise.

She grabbed the nearest of the purple tinged rocks and began smashing it violently against the Cyberhead.

"Please cease and desist striking this unit." Said the Cyberhead just before Tali smashed its left handlebar off as well as putting a nasty dent in the left side of its face. At the same time, the rock cracked open and a thick, purple liquid poured out and covered the head.

The Cyberhead seemed to give up. Tali hastily untangled herself from its wires and threw it several feet away.

"You will be converted."

"Oh, get a life."

The distinctive sound of a Cyberman's stomping rang out. From behind a particularly large rock structure emerged a Cyberman. It was missing a head, but other than that small inconvenience, it seemed fine.

Tali stared in shock and awe as the Cyberbody stomped over to the Cyberhead and casually reattached its severed head as if losing its head were merely a minor setback to fulfilling its mission.

"You will become like us." The Cyberman said, its voice no longer disjointed. It began staggering towards Tali with its arms outstretched like some sort of zombie from a human horror vid.

Tali suddenly remembered her pistol. She kicked herself for not remembering sooner as she dived towards the gun. The Cyberman kept advancing. Tali snatched her pistol out of the sand and fired a shot at the determined creature's head.

The purple liquid covering the Cyberman's head seemed to ignite as the red hot shard of metal made contact with it. A split second later, the Cyberman exploded violently and the force of the sudden explosion threw Tali backwards into a large rock structure and knocked her out cold.

* * *

><p>Tali felt even worse. Now it felt like her skull had an angry vorcha trapped inside it that was trying to claw its way out. Her eyes were closed but she could see a bright, green light.<p>

"Keelah. I'm not dead am I?" Tali said in a rather casual tone.

"You're not dead," said a familiar voice, "Not yet anyway. A nasty smack to the head though."

Tali opened her eyes and saw the Doctor shining a green light thing in her eyes.

He smiled at her, "A quarian. I haven't seen a quarian in years! Brilliant species!"

"Um, thanks. I guess." Tali noticed that her translator wasn't working, "Are you speaking quarian?"

"I speak everything. Except Welsh. Could never get the hang of Welsh."

He flicked his wrist to look at his device, "You should be fine. Nothing to worry about! Just don't go swimming for half an hour." He said as he placed the device back in his tweed jacket. He sat down next to her beneath the rock structure. "It was working on repair protocols," He pointed at a pile of cyber parts several feet away, "The organic part was killed by the Angel so the cybernetic part began looking for fresh meat."

Hundreds of questions were buzzing around inside Tali's head. "Are you really a time traveller?" she asked.

He looked puzzled, "I never said I was a time traveller."

"Yes you did. On the big screen in the vault."

A look of realisation dawned on his youthful face, "Ah, yes. That hasn't happened to me. Expect it has. Except it hasn't. Except it has but it's in my future. Time travel; it tends to get a bit confusing."

"So you haven't recorded the message yet, Doctor? Or left the instructions in Cold Storage Nine?" Tali pressed a few buttons on her omni-tool and brought up the photograph of the Doctor's frozen words she had taken earlier.

The Doctor grabbed her arm and stared at the photo. "Nope. But they both sound like something I'd do. What language is that? Dutch?"

"English." Tali corrected him.

"Ah, always getting those two mixed up." He let go of her arm and leapt to his feet, "Right, time to record that message, carve those instructions and get back my frankly fantastic time machine. Any questions?"

"Yes. Quite a few in fact."

"Can a wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of fulfilling a stable time loop."

"No," Tali got to her feet and poked the Doctor in the chest, "Time travel. Explain! If the humans had time travel, the Council would know about it."

"Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not human. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey."

"But you look just like a human."

The Doctor looked rather irritated, "Why does everyone – no, humans look just like Time Lords. We came first. And besides, they are some differences."

"Such as?" Tali said, still not quite believing him.

"Time Lords are, on average, three inches taller than humans. They also have a tendency to wear funny hats."

"So there are other Time Lords?"

The Doctor hesitated for a moment. "No. Not anymore. There was a bad day. A very bad day. A very bad day were lots of very bad things happened."

Tali decided to change the subject. The Doctor clearly wasn't comfortable talking about this topic and she knew what it was like for an entire species to have one very bad day.

"So," she said, trying to sound chipper, "How did you get yourself into this situation?" Tali made a vague gesture with her hands.

The Doctor seemed to cheer up instantly, "Well, I had just dropped of my friends in Ancient Rome as part of their honeymoon and then I went to the Citadel in 2185, that's a human date by the way, and stopped living plastic from taking over your galaxy."

"Wait, sorry, what?"

"The Nestene Consciousness was trying to infiltrate the Council. I got some help from a young Drell. Nice boy; a bit sulky."

"Doctor, you're getting side-tracked."

"Oh, sorry. I tend to do that. Where was I? Ah, yes. So after I defeated the Consciousness my ship picked up a distress signal from somewhere in this galaxy in that particular time zone."

"That's why we came here! Our ship picked up the distress signal too!"

"Would you mind not interrupting me?"

"Oh, sorry."

"So I traced the signal…"

"You traced a distress signal from the outer rim of the galaxy when you were on the Citadel?" Tali said, slightly sceptical.

"Please stop interrupting me. And yes, yes I did. It's easy when you've got a ship as brilliant as mine. So I came to this planet," he gestured up at the sky, "But the Angel got me, just like it got you. Send me back in time. Fed of my potential energy."

"The Angel?" Tali said, suddenly remembering the statue, "It that the living statue?"

"Yes. Except no because it's not really a statue at all. It's actually a sentient idea from the dawn of the universe."

"So I was send back in time by twelve millennia by a sentient idea? Okay, I'll believe that. It's actually one of the saner things you've said." She paused, "Which says a lot about today."

"I've faced them before; it was a whole army back then. This time it's just the one. Still very dangerous though. Not sure how it got here; Angels have a nasty habit of just showing up in the worst places. Just don't blink or turn your back and you should be fine." He paused, "Should be."

"What about the Cybermen?"

"Well, the Angel sent me back in time and I saw that the cyber city was being terrorised by an earlier version of the same Angel."

"It was still alive twelve thousand years earlier?"

"Weeping Angels are immortal. Twelve thousand years is a drop in the ocean. Anyway, as soon as I arrived the Cybermen began retreating into that vault of their's. I must have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Except I'm not made of straw and the nearest camel is ninety thousand light years away, so forget that. Is everything clear?"

"Not at all."

"Oh, well." He turned to leave but turned back at Tali immediately, "You already know my name, what's yours?"

"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy."

The Doctor smiled, "Come along, Zorah!"

* * *

><p>"Doctor, let me do it."<p>

"For the last time; I don't need your help!" The Doctor yelled at Tali as the door once again refused to open.

"I told you, I'm good at that sort of thing."

"I've got a sonic screwdriver; you haven't. That makes me the better hacker." The Doctor said with his usual blend of arrogance and stubbornness.

"Sonic screwdriver? What else have you got? Biotic drill?" Tali said with a laugh.

"I did. But Captain Blackbeard stole it from me. Still; what can you expect from pirates, eh?"

Tali wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not, "Do you always speak in riddles, Doctor?"

"It's not a riddle if you know the answer." He said without even looking at her as he attempted to open the door again with his sonic screwdriver.

"Sorry," Tali said as she scanned the long, shiny corridor with her pistol, "What's in their again?"

"I told you, it's the science lab. It's one of the most important rooms in this city so the Cybermen predictably placed it in Tower One. That's the problem with Cybermen; far too logical for their good and just a little bit thick."

"Are you sure we'll find everything we need to leave the instructions in there?"

"Positive. Like I said; predictable, logical and thick." The Doctor said as he once again tried to force the door open.

Tali looked out the windows that took up the entirety of both the left and right walls of the long corridor. They were on the seventh floor which gave them a spectacular view of the cyber city and the setting sun. "You speak like you've met them before." she said.

"Oh, so, so many times. I remember when I first met them." He smiled as if he was caught up in a distant memory, "I died. Well, not really."

Tali had already learned that attempting to get the Doctor to answer any of his riddles was fruitless, so she didn't even bother asking how he died but didn't really die. A long silence passed between them as the Doctor kept trying to open the science lab door. Two or three repair protocol Cybermen entered the corridor but Tali quickly gunned them down.

"Fascinating planet this," said the Doctor after another long silence, "Used to be the homeworld of the Malacostrians. They were like a cross between a giant cockroach and a lobster. They're extinct now; we properly have the Cybermen to thank for that. Lovely people; I really should go visit them again."

"I thought you said they were all dead?"

"So's the Twelve King of Raxacoricofallapatorius. And I'm on his VIP list for parties. I think he fancies me a bit. Start thinking like a time traveller, Tali." He suddenly clapped his hands together in glee, "Ah, yes! Got it!"

"What? You can get the door open?"

"Yes. It's a simple matter of rewiring the primary power converters into –"

"Doctor."

"- it's easy when you're as clever as me –"

"Doctor."

"- a few sonic pulses and the timely appliance of a paperclip –"

"Doctor!"

The Doctor turned away from the door to Tali, "What? I'm being very clever but you're not paying attention. What's the point in being clever if there's no one to see you be clever?"

Tali pointed at the end of the corridor. There stood the Weeping Angel, casting its distinctive shadow over the corridor due to the twilight.

"It's an earlier version of the Angel that got both of us in the future." The Doctor explained. "I'll open the door. Just keep staring at it. Don't even blink."

"What happens if I blink?" Tali asked as she suddenly became very conscious of her eyes.

"Then it brutally murder both of us." The Doctor said matter-of-factly as he returned to the door controls.

Tali kept staring at the Angel. She tried alternating her blinking between her left and right eyes but found it was much harder than she thought it would be. There was no way she was ending up like poor Matthews; she raised her pistol and fired several shots at the creature.

"Don't bother!" The Doctor shouted over the gunfire.

Tali's eyes felt like they were being stabbed with pins. Surely a split second couldn't hurt? She blinked. The relief was overwhelming. As soon as she opened her eyes the Angel was merely a few inches from her face; its face frozen in a snarling expression and its talon-like fingers wrapped tightly around her arms.

"Got it!" The Doctor shouted with joy as Tali heard the door slide open behind her, "Come on!" he turned around and saw Tali in the grasp of the Angel. He immediately rushed over and began scanning the Angel's left arm with his sonic screwdriver.

"What are doing?" Tali asked as she stared right into the face of the Angel; more terrified than she'd ever been in her life.

"Don't look into its eyes." The Doctor said as he continued scanning.

"Why?"

"Just don't!" The Doctor shouted with a hint of desperation in his voice.

Tali immediately began focusing on the Angel's nose instead, "Seriously, Doctor, what are you doing?"

He kept scanning the Angel's left arm, "I'm trying to send a sonic pulse through the Angel's main artery. It should stun it for a few minutes."

"You're lying," Tali said as she continued to stare at the Angel's nose, "Why would a sentient idea that feeds on energy have a blood supply?"

He stopped, "Okay, that was a clever lie to calm you down. You're too clever for you'll our good Tali'Zorah."

"Just go on without me. My friends will help you get your time machine back. I'll only slow you down anyway."

"No, we're not doing that! It's far too cliché." He seemed to notice something at the end of the corridor, "I'll be right back Tali. I promise."

"But you always talk nonsense. How do I know you're telling the truth?" Tali said as the fear began to overwhelm her. She wasn't ready to die. Not quite yet.

"Ten seconds. I'll be gone ten seconds. Just trust me for ten seconds, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy." He gave her a quick, comforting kiss on her enviro-suit helmet and dashed off down the corridor.

Tali continued to stare at the Angel's nose. She couldn't blink. She mustn't blink. She couldn't die here; she couldn't let Shepard blame herself for yet another death that wasn't her fault. She could faintly hear the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. What was he doing back there?

The Doctor came rushing back into her and the Angel's view carrying a cyberarm. Tali once again felt the relief wash over her as she was free to blink.

"What's that for?" Tali asked.

"It's from one of the repair protocol Cybermen you shot earlier," he explained, "The cooling agent used to prevent the wrist-mounted energy blaster from overheating can act like a lubricant. And don't ask me how I know that."

He snapped the wrist blaster of and began spreading the yellow liquid all over Tali and the Angel's arms. After a few minutes Tali managed to pull free of the Angel's talons. She and the Doctor quickly ran backwards through the science lab door. The Doctor closed and locked it by simply using his sonic screwdriver on a control panel.

"Much lighter security on the inside." He explained as he placed the screwdriver in his tweed jacket.

On the other side of the door, they could hear the Weeping Angel loudly snarling and trying to punch its way through the thick metal.

"Why is it so desperate to kill us?" Tali screamed.

"It must not be hungry. So instead of feeding off our potential energy it just wants to kill us."

"But why?"

"For fun!"

"Thanks for saving me by the way. You could have just left me."

"I'd never do that. Not to anyone. Now," he clapped his hands together and looked around the large science lab, "Let's see what we can find."


	5. Chapter 5

"Attention all Cyber units, hostile life forms are present in the area. Conversion is not an option; they must be decommissioned."

The Cyber Leader's voice boomed across the street as its face appeared on a giant vid screen on the side of a building, much like the screen the Doctor had appeared on in the vault. The Cyber Leader looked rather distinguished with its black handlebars and face plates.

The recorded message played again, "Attention all Cyber units, hostile life forms are present in the area. Conversion is not an option; they must be decommissioned."

Shepard had had quite enough of its constant yammering so she silenced it by destroying the vid screen with a quick burst of her assault rifle.

"Wasting ammo again?" Garrus teased as they reached the base of one of the city's many towers, "Wrong tower," he said as he checked the markings near the door, "There's only ten little dots here."

"Dammit," said Shepard, "Oh well. I'm sure we'll find Tower Eleven eventually. And that was that about me wasting ammo?"

"You waste ammo all the time." Garrus said as he began walking down the street.

"What do you mean?" Shepard said as she jogged after the turian.

"Alenko told me about the gasbags on Eden Prime. And remember Mars? You began shooting at those…..ah…..bird…things."

"Seagulls?"

"Yeah, that's it. I don't know why you have a fear of them; I thought they were rather cute."

"Garrus, you think varren are cute."

"They are! Oh, and remember that time in the Tuchankan sewage plant?"

"Garrus."

"You start shooting your assault rifle in the air out of frustration. Or was it disgust? After all, we were elbow-deep in krogan sh-"

"Shush!" Shepard said as she placed a finger to her lips. The distinctive sound of Cybermen marching was gradually getting closer. Shepard and Garrus nodded at each other before they both dashed to an alleyway on both sides of the street. Shepard loaded a fresh thermal clip into her assault rifle; Garrus did the same to his sniper rifle in the opposite alley.

A squad of six Cybermen marched into the street. Shepard fired a concussive shot and blew the legs off of one of them. The Cybermen began returning fire with their wrist blasters. Garrus capped two of them with skilful headshots from his sniper rifle.

An energy bolt hit Shepard's arm and took down her shields. She returned fire by firing a whole clip of disruptor ammunition into the shooter's chest. Garrus blew one of the Cybermen's arms off. The sniper shot kept travelling and hit the Cyberman standing behind it in the neck. The squad lay slain on the ground.

"That wasn't so bad." Shepard said as she moved to meet Garrus in the middle of the street.

"We've faced worse," Garrus said as he loaded a thermal clip into his sniper rifle, "They're not so tough."

Suddenly, the dead Cybermen began moving again. They began slowly getting to their feet; the legless one dragged itself across the ground.

Shepard and Garrus panicked and responded with a deadly barrage of gunfire. Shepard gradually made her way towards one of the Cybermen. She knelt down and began inspecting it; it was lying on the ground with one arm missing and hundreds of bullet holes in its chest.

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Garrus said from several metres away, "But is it dead?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

Without warning, the Cyberman's head ejected from its body and wrapped tentacle-like wires around Shepard's arms. In the shock Shepard accidently dropped her assault rifle.

"Garrus, shoot it!" She shouted as she held the Cyberhead as far away from her own head as possible, "Jesus Christ, shoot it!"

"Hold it still then!" Garrus shouted as he tried to line up the shot, "And who's Jesus?"

"I'm trying, I'm trying! Don't get your plates in a twist!" The Cyberhead was yanking Shepard around as much as possible. It was almost as if it knew that if it stayed still it would miss the opportunity to acquire a new host.

Shepard mustered up all of her strength and held the Cyberhead still as it kept trying to pull her around. The face plates on it opened up and a slightly rotten decapitated alien head fell out. Shepard knew it was trying to use scare tactics, but she had seen far worse happen to Yeoman Chambers on the Collector Base. Poor Kelly.

A sound of a sniper rifle firing rang out and the force of the shot caused Shepard to be knocked off her feet. Garrus had shot the Cyberhead directly in the, well, the head. Shepard could even see through the bullet hole like a telescope.

"These things are hard to kill." Garrus said as he helped Shepard up.

"Gee, ya think?" Shepard deadpanned as she picked up her assault rifle.

* * *

><p>Shepard and Garrus entered the ground floor lobby of Tower Eleven. It was just as drab and void of personality as the Cybermen themselves.<p>

"Think you can get the elevator working?" Shepard said as she scanned the lobby for hostiles.

"What makes you think it'll be broken?" Garrus said as he moved to the elevator at the end of the lobby and pressed the call button. Nothing happened, "Okay Shepard, that's just spooky."

"Murphy's Law." The human said with a smile.

"What?" Garrus said as he wired his omni-tool into the elevator control panel.

"It's a human saying; anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

"Humans are a cheery bunch, aren't they?"

"Really missing Tali right now." Garrus said after fifteen minutes of unsuccessful hacking.

For the first time, Shepard noticed a beautiful statue of an angel in the lobby. She hadn't noticed it before. It stood in the left side of the lobby, serene and weeping.

Suddenly, the angel looked different. It's arms were at its side and its stone cold eyes seemed to be staring right at Shepard. Then it disappeared completely. Then it appeared on the other side of the lobby.

"Garrus, the statue is moving." Shepard felt like a child with an overactive imagination as soon as she said it.

Garrus turned around and looked at the angel, "It's probably a malfunctioning hologramatic statue. Some people like them because you can't break a toe on a hologram. Ah, I did it!"

The elevator was summoned and the doors lid open. The duo slid into the elevator, but Shepard made sure she keep her eye on the angel statue until the doors closed. All of her instincts were telling her to be wary of it.

"Top floor right?" Garrus said as pressed the button for it, "So do you really think that this Doctor is a time traveller? It's ridiculous if you ask me. And I still don't trust him."

Shepard was still thinking about the moving statue. It didn't look like a hologram to her. It looked rather solid, in fact.

"Shepard? Shepard?"

Shepard pulled out of her daydream, "Um, yeah, yeah." She said in response to Garrus's question; which she couldn't really remember now.

Suddenly, the elevator came to a screeching stop. Shepard and Garrus stumbled and grabbed hold of each other to stop them falling. Below the elevator, they could hear shrieking and the beating of what sounded like large, powerful wings. The elevator was clearly trying to move up but something was stopping it.

"It's the angel." Shepard whispered.

"Don't be so stupid," Garrus whispered, "It's probably just a malfunction."

"Then what do you call that?" Shepard whispered as she pointed at the floor as the shrieking and the beating of wings continued.

"Why are we whispering?"

"I don't know."

The entire elevator shook as the angel pulled it downwards by a few feet with tremendous strength.

"Jesus Christ!" Shepard swore.

"Who's Jesus?" Garrus said, exacerbated.

Shepard looked at the elevator buttons. The twenty-ninth floor button was lit and they needed to get to the top floor, the thirtieth floor.

"I've just had an incredibly dangerous plan." Shepard said.

"What's new?" Garrus said, still somehow keeping up his snark as the elevator fought against the pull of the angel.

Shepard knocked away a piece of ceiling grating on the elevator with the butt of her assault rifle, "We're going to climb up the elevator shaft."

"You've got to be kidding."

"It's only one floor to the top!"

"Which means the fall would be even longer. We could fall, Shepard!"

"We could not!"

"Fine. But if I die, I'll kill you." Garrus squeezed through the hole and helped Shepard though afterwards. Garrus put his sniper rifle on his back and began climbing up the elevator shaft metal wall like a rock climbing wall, muttering to himself on the way.

Shepard began climbing up wall alongside him.

"Cover your ears." She said as she levelled her assault rifle at the elevator and the unseen angel underneath it. She fired a concussive shot. The sudden force must have been too much for the angel and the elevator began careening down the elevator shaft at a tremendous speed. They heard a very loud crash in the darkness at the bottom of the shaft.

"There's no way it survived that." Garrus said, "How did you get up here so fast?"

"What?" Shepard said, puzzled.

"Well, I got a head start on the climbing but you still caught up with me."

"I guess I'm just good at climbing."

"Oh, really? Want to put that to the test?" Garrus said just before he began rapidly climbing up the elevator shaft.

Shepard quickly caught up with him, "You want to turn this into a race? Fine by me!"

The two of them began a climbing race up the shaft. They were having so much fun they almost forgot about the mortal danger they were in.

"Hey Shepard, are you hungry?" Garrus said as they got close to the top floor.

"Yes. Why?"

"Because you're going to eat my dust!"

"You can't fight evolution, Vakarian. I was built to climb!" With that, Shepard dashed up the shaft and climbed through the opening to the top floor. Garrus joined her a minute later.

"Seems a bit unfair to have an evolutionary advantage." Garrus grumbled.

"You started it."

The two of them turned around. At the end of the long corridor was a room with huge windows taking up the entirety of the left wall; providing a great view of the city at sunset. And in that room stood an enigmatic blue box.


	6. Chapter 6

The Cybermen's laboratory was a large, spacious room with many long tables in it. Upon each table were piles and piles of junk.

"Oh, look at this!" The Doctor pranced towards the nearest table and starting gushing about how brilliant all the junk was. Tali was reminded of an excited child in a sweet shop.

"Look at all this!" He continued, "Adegan crystals, warp transgobbler, eezo containers, shockpoint drive, timey-wimey detector….."

"So the Cybermen invented all of this?" Tali asked.

"Nah," The Doctor said as he inspected a nearby toilet plunger, "They stole it all. The Cybermen love collecting any sort of junk. Sort of like outer space binmen. Except binmen don't turn you into one of their own. Binmen don't have lasers either. Well, most of the time."

"If this is all worthless junk then why did they bother collecting it?" Tali said as she glanced around the room. She noticed a large, domed skylight in the centre of the ceiling. The Weeping Angel was still banging on the metal door.

"Probably trying to fix it. And I would imagine it's not all junk; some of these things might still work. Oh? What's this?"

The Doctor pulled a large, tube-like object out from the bottom of the pile, causing several pieces of technology to fall to the ground and shatter. The Doctor didn't even seem to notice.

Tali looked at the odd contraption. It looked a little like a rifle that someone had attached loads of bleeping lights to.

"Okay, I'll bite," she said, "What is it?"

"A Brogan's Wand!" The Doctor said as if he expected her to know what he was talking about, "I haven't seen one of these in years! Well, centuries really."

Tali decided to ignore his last sentence, "And what does a Brogan's Wand do?"

"It was used in the Resource Wars between the United Kingdoms of Raxicofoe and the People's Republic of Inconceivable Terror. Teleport spamming was a common tactic for the Raxicofians, so the People's Republic invented this. In the event of a teleport within a twenty mile radius, the Wand grabs the particles in mid-flight and rebuilds them directly in front of the user. Very clever!"

"Really? How does it work?"

"It's very simple; when the lights bleep, science-y stuff is happening."

"So what does this wand thing have to do with anything?"

"Oh," The Doctor looked at her as if she had completely misunderstood, "Absolutely nothing." He promptly dropped the device on the floor and continued rummaging through the piles of junk.

After several minutes, the Doctor emerged with three gadgets. Tali recognised one of them.

"Hey, that's the box that burned me!" She said as she pointed at the small box in the Time Lord's hands.

"It's a crude DNA scanner," the Doctor explained, "From the shores of Vinvocci Minor. It's a long way from home. Half a galaxy in fact."

"Why did it burn me?" Tali asked as she massaged the palms of her hands.

"Like I said; crude. Burning you was the only way it could get a sample of your genetic material. I've already programmed it for quarian DNA. Will you be alright though? Because of y'know…..the whole…..suit…..thing."

"Oh, my suit's section seals activated immediately and I took some antibiotics. Will take some antibiotics. Keelah, this is starting to get confusing."

"Yes, it's confusing. And it's probably going to get a lot more confusing."

Tali noticed the other two gadgets he was carrying. One was a futuristic blowtorch and the other was a wielding mask.

"I'm guessing the torch is for carving the instructions in Cold Storage Nine, but what's the mask for?" She said.

"Safety first, Tali."

The Doctor somehow managed to stuff the DNA scanner, the blowtorch and the wielding mask inside the inner pocket of his tweed jacket. He must have sensed Tali's confused expression because he turned to her and simply said; "Bigger on the inside."

This didn't help Tali's confusion at all; "Bigger on the inside? And how does that work? Science-y stuff?"

"Nope, dimensionally transcendental pockets. You see, the Time Lords discovered that if you take a dimension and fold it in on itself then…yeah, it's science-y stuff."

Tali suddenly noticed something she hadn't noticed before. Directly beneath the skylight stood an odd machine. It was around five feet tall and it had an array of flashing lights plastered all over it in a seemingly haphazard way.

"Doctor, what's that?" She said as she pointed at the odd machine.

"Ah, a big flashy, lighty thing." The Doctor said as he clapped his hands and walked over towards the machine. "Take it from me; big flashy, lighty things are rarely good. They're always super-weapons or bio-weapons or yogurt dispensers."

"Yogurt dispensers?"

"I don't like yogurt. It's just stuff with bits in."

Tali joined the Doctor under the skylight. The moonlight from the planet's twin moons bathed the odd machine in a rather beautiful but haunted light. The Doctor began scanning the machine with his sonic screwdriver.

After a couple of seconds, he looked at the screwdriver as if he was reading results off of it. Tali wondered how he could do this, seeing as how the screwdriver had no visible screen for displaying results. She thought about asking but declined against it. It's not as if she would get a straight answer anyway.

"It's a distress signal emitter," he said, "probably what your ship picked up. I would imagine the Angel set this up once the Cybermen retreated to their vault. This is probably why it was so desperate to kill us."

"To lure in passers-by right?"

"Exactly. Space travellers pick up distress signal so they land on the planet to help. Then the Angel feeds off their potential energy. It worked on you and it probably worked on dozens more before you. Doesn't make sense though."

"Why not?"

"One or two space travellers every century wouldn't be enough to keep the Angel looking healthy. It must have another food source. But what?"

"Well can you disable it?" Tali said as she began running her hands over the emitter.

"Of course I could. All it would take is a quick jab from setting 456 on this," he threw his sonic screwdriver a few inches into the air and caught it, "So I could. But I won't."

"You won't? Why the hell not? You could save lives!"

"If I disable the emitter now it means that your ship wouldn't have come to this planet in twelve thousand years' time. Which means you wouldn't have been send back in time by the Angel, which means you wouldn't have been here in the first place to persuade me to disable the emitter. Not to mention the fact that I wouldn't have come to this planet if it weren't for the distress signal. Confused? Well the universe would be confused too and it would probably throw some sort of temper tantrum."

"Wait, sorry, what?"

"In short, using setting 456 would result in the destruction of three fifths of reality. Clear?"

"As clear as mud."

"And I'm tell you something else."

Tali stopped running he hands over the emitter, "What?"

"That banging on the door? It stopped several minutes ago."

Tali immediately spun around and faced the metal door they had entered though earlier. There were several large dents in it but it was still sturdy and the Angel seemed to have given up.

Tali turned back to the Doctor. He was staring up at the ceiling.

"That's not good." He said.

Tali looked up. There was the Weeping Angel. It was clinging to the exterior of the skylight, bathing in the moonlight of the twin moons, its frozen stone cold face locked in an expression of pure fury.

"That's not good at all." The Doctor continued. "Tali, stay here. Keep looking at it."

Tali stared up at the Angel. She already desperately needed to blink and looking upwards for so long was starting to give her a crimp in her neck. But she had already let the Angel get the best of her once and she wasn't about to do it again.

"That's exceedingly not very good!" She heard the Doctor say from across the room.

"What is it?" Tali shouted without looking at him.

"I think I may of broken the lock when I forced entry. I can't get it to open!"

"Oh, you're so clever Doctor!"

"Why yes I am, thank you!"

"I was being sarcastic!"

Without even realising what she had done until after she had done it, Tali blinked. There was a shatter of glass and one of the Angel's taloned hands was reaching through a small hole in the skylight. It's face was now locked in a psychotic smirk.

"I'm sorry." Tali said as the Doctor dashed past her as he franticly searched the room for another way out. She had let him down again.

"It's fine. Happens to the best of us. Ah!"

"Ah? Ah what?"

"Ah, I've found a way out! Tali, get over her!"

As fast as she could, Tali sped away from the skylight. As she ran she heard an almighty smash behind her. She turned around to see the Angel stood atop a minefield of broken glass with its face locked what almost looked like an expression of pain.

The Doctor was staring at the Angel as Tali reached him.

"Behind me." He said without taking his eyes of the Angel. "There's a rubbish chute behind me."

Tali looked behind him and saw a small hole in the wall, "You expect us to slide down a dark, cramped, stinking chute?"

"Think of it like a water slide. A big, fun water slide with brown water!"

"I don't like water slides at the best of times."

"Then think of it like a rubbish chute! You've never been down a rubbish chute before, it'll be a new experience!"

Tali took another glance down the rubbish chute. She turned off her olfactory filters and climbed into the chute, "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be right behind you. Go."

Trying her best to imagine she was somewhere else, Tali let herself fall down the chute. As she tumbled through the endless darkness she heard the Doctor shout one word. A word Tali didn't know the meaning to.

"Geronimo!"

* * *

><p>Tali was lying down face first in something soft. She propped herself up on her elbows and opened her eyes but she still couldn't see further than the end of her nose. Suddenly, a horrific wave of realisation washed over her.<p>

_I fell a long way. What if my mask is broken?_

Tali quickly felt her face. Luckily, her mask was fine. The soft thing she had landed on must have broken her fall.

A few feet away from her she heard a groan and a spitting noise; "That's the last time I jump down a rubbish chute with my mouth open."

"Doctor? Are you okay?"

"Tali? Well, I've got a rather peculiar taste in my mouth and my nose is threatening to explode but other than that I'm perfectly fine."

Tali crawled in the direction of the Doctor's voice. She didn't want to risk standing up and giving herself a bump on the head; she didn't know how low the ceiling of this place was. She kept crawling until she accidently smacked her head into the Doctor's.

"Ow!"

"Oops. Sorry, Doctor."

"I'm going to have a lump there now."

"Oh, stop being such a cry baby. I said I was sorry didn't I?"

Tali suddenly remembered that she had brought two gravity globes with her on this mission. She had used the first one in the vault but the second globe was currently in one of her pockets. Tali fumbled about in her pockets as she tried to find it. She accidently elbowed the Doctor in the stomach as she did so.

"Ow! Again?"

"Sorry. I know it's here somewhere."

"What?"

"Ah, here it is!"

Tali could feel the golf ball shaped sphere in her hands as she produced it from one of her pockets. She fumbled about until she found the button that caused the sphere to expand to the size of a football. She tossed it in the air and the area was flooded with the gravity globe's eerie light.

Tali realised that she could have stood up. In fact, the whole crew of the Normandy could have stood on each other's shoulders and it would still be quite a ways the ceiling. They were standing in an enormous cavern. There were dozens of rubbish chutes spread out across the walls of the cavern and the floor was covered in some sort of pink, squishy mass.

The Doctor leapt to his feet with his usual vigour and looked down at Tali; who was still on her hands and knees. Tali felt rather embarrassed as she stood up.

"What is this?" Tali as she eyed the pink mass covering the floor.

The Doctor seemed very solemn; "I think it's the natives."

Tali abruptly realised that it wasn't one giant mass but rather thousands of individual masses. They were standing in a mass grave. The awful smell the Doctor had complained about was a smell of thousands of decomposing bodies.

"The Cybermen did this?"

"Yes. The Cybermen slaughtered them all and then just threw their bodies down here beneath the city. The Malacostrians were peaceful people. They didn't deserve this. No species does."

Tali tried to make out the features of one of the corpses from under the gravity globe's eerie light but it had rotted too much. "Why didn't the Cybermen convert them?"

"They were lobster-roaches. The cyber conversion process only works on humanoids."

Tali noticed that several small purple rocks from the outside were scattered around. "Why are these rocks here?" she asked.

"The purple colouration comes from a naturally explosive chemical inside the rock," The Doctor explained, "heat it up quickly enough and it can blow a hole in a mountain. The Malacostrians used it for mining. They were probably carrying those rocks them they were killed. "

Tali remembered how the first repair protocol Cyberman had violently exploded when she had shot the purple goo on its face. The heat from the shard of metal in her gun must have reacted with the purple goo. Tali pocketed one of the rocks. She was sure Mordin would find it fascinating.

Tali's sorrow was now replaced with angry; "Let's kill them. Let's kill every last damn Cyberman on this planet."

"Right with you. Before we do that we need to get out of this cavern." The Doctor pointed at the floating glowing sphere, "That's a gravity globe isn't it?"

"Yes. It's an invention of mine." Tali said as she tried her best not to think about what she was currently standing on.

"You outta think about selling it. I'm sure lots of parties would be interested. Like deep space explorers or Christian marines….."

"I really don't think now's the time to discuss business ventures."

The Doctor withdrew his sonic screwdriver and used it on the gravity globe. It deactivated and he caught it as it dropped. The cavern was once again plunged into darkness.

"Follow me!" The Doctor said.

"I can't see anything!"

"Oh, right. Follow the sonic!"

Tali followed the small green light as she tried he best not to trip over the corpses. The light stopped and it shone upwards to show the faint outline of a rubbish chute, about twenty feet up from them in a slightly downward angle.

The Doctor held the gravity globe and the screwdriver above his head. Tali realised what he was going to do. He was going to activate the globe and ride it up the rubbish chute to freedom.

"Hang on!" The Doctor said.

Tali immediately grabbed on to his shoulders. Tali thought this ridiculous plan was most likely going to kill them so she decided to ask the Doctor one last question.

"Doctor, that word you yelled as you fell down the chute. What does it mean?"

"It's a very ancient and very wise word from Earth. A word used in times of great excitement and great bravery."

"And what was that word again?"

"Geronimo!"


End file.
